Former Cuban Television presenter María Victoria vicky Gil Fernández, resident in Tenerife, gave an extensive and controversial interview on the YouTube channel this Wednesday Darwin’s World, in which he offered biographical details about his brother Alejandro Gil, the Island’s Minister of Economy, and his former colleague Edmundo García.
He considered that his intervention in the Miami channel was an “obligation” with the Cubans, and that his statements fulfilled the “right to be able” to defend himself. She recalled her 35 years of work as a presenter of the program De la gran scene, and considered her interview as “a vindication”.
Vicky, as she is also known, recalled that State Security supervises and controls the contents of Cuban Television. “Everything that is said goes through a sieve, everyone knows that,” she admitted, before sharing personal anecdotes about the censorship of various broadcasts of De la gran scene. “There is no freedom of the press and of ideas in a dictatorship,” she pointed out, bluntly, “no one is afraid to say it: it is a dictatorship,” although she ironically clarified that it was “of the proletariat.”
He described Garcia as a “peasant” from the interior of the country who quickly entered the world of art trafficking as he gained fame on the show.
The presenter commented on her relationship with the journalist Edmundo García, one of the most controversial figures linked to the Cuban government from the United States. “It was imposed” on De la gran scene, after the forced substitution of Omar Moynelo, she remarked.
He described Garcia as a “peasant” from the interior of the country who quickly entered the world of art trafficking as he gained fame on the show, Gil said. “According to him, his friends were Vargas Llosa, Miguel Barnet, and his way of life was that of the upper bourgeoisie.” He had bodyguards, cell phones and cars when no one could have them, he asserted.
“His life was not that of a communist and he came to have a fortune in the International Financial Bank”, money he obtained from buying and selling paintings. Gil detailed how she, too, was involved in trafficking and getting the cut of it, though not to the level of Garcia, who was often detained by police and soon released thanks to his influence.
He assures that García, with the complicity of the journalist Ciro Bianchi Ross and the family of Antonio Núñez Jiménez, was responsible for the sale of a fake Picasso painting to an Italian collector. For the scam, Gil said, they earned $200,000. The Italian, of course, returned to Cuba to file a complaint, but the participants went unpunished “due to lack of evidence.”
García, with the complicity of the journalist Ciro Bianchi Ross and the family of Antonio Núñez Jiménez, was responsible for the sale of a fake Picasso painting to an Italian collector
“They removed him from the program without having done anything,” says Gil, who said he was not clear about the causes of Edmundo García’s expulsion or knew anything about his “mission” in Miami.
In the second segment of the interview, the presenter referred to her brother Alejandro Gil, whom she considers “a communist.” “My brother has no need to be where he is,” she said, but “he blindly believes that he will be able to move the country forward.”
Alejandro Gil graduated as an engineer in Exploitation of Maritime Transport from the Technological University of Havana (Cujae), a profession that has little relation to his current position as Minister of Economy. “I cannot exempt him from his responsibility,” acknowledged the presenter, alluding to the current crisis in all orders that the country is going through, “nor can I say that I am the sister of a stick figure.”
“The Cuban economy has always been run by incompetents,” he concluded, “political will has always triumphed over economic reality.” He added that Cuba can only grow financially through “beaches, nickel and poor doctors.” María Victoria Gil discredited the Ordering Task, whose failure could easily be predicted.
“Give me time,” has always been the response of his brother, a “convinced” that his recipe to save the economy is correct, according to the presenter.
Alejandro Gil “left everything,” he explains, “because he was a communist and a fool.” Back in Cuba on one of his trips “they made him dizzy” with flags and honors and he became part of the government apparatus
“My brother was a tycoon,” he says bluntly, recalling his brother’s highly successful career at a UK marine insurance company. He was a member of various international clubs in London, Russia and Havana. He “left everything,” he explains, “for being a communist and a fool.” Back in Cuba on one of his trips “they made him dizzy” with flags and honors and he became part of the government apparatus. “My family wanted to kill him,” he said.
Vicky defended herself against the accusations of being a “frontman for the Castros” and said she had bought a small beauty shop, barely 14 square meters in Tenerife, Canary Islands, with the money of a cousin who lives in Spain.
Gil analyzes Fidel Castro with the same indulgence, whom he described as a “human being who made a mistake,” although he admitted that he was “too self-centered.” He commented that there are many rumors about the leadership of Cuban power and many are true, such as those referring to Raúl Castro’s grandson, Guillermo Rodríguez Castro, The crab.
María Victoria Gil regrets that her brother “is involved in that problem” at 58 years old, since he is the person “most hated” by the people along with Miguel Díaz-Canel and Manuel Marrero. She assures that she lives in a lot “that is falling down” and suffers from blackouts, although other sources point to a comfortable house in the neighborhood of La Víbora, in the Havana municipality of Diez de Octubre.
“I hope he finds his way out, or leaves at the right time,” he said. “He will have to leave Cuba if there is a big change.”
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